William Burroughs on Sub Rosa via Fusetron

Was in boston this week hanging out with my friend Matt, working on stuff and driving back to catch Explosions in the sky.
I was all set to talk about a couple of Ty Segall singles and then looking at a fusetron email, saw this single from William Burroughs and just had to mention it.

First off, I can't find any info about this release anywhere, not from Sub Rosa, or any other UK singles distro's...tons of searches later and there's not a picture or description to be found. I'm still trying to decide if this actually is a 12"?
But if Fusetron says it has it, then I'm buying.

A long time ago I picked up a single of Burroughs and Gus Van Zandt called Millions of Images...which was crazy...I guess Gus is playing guitar and drum machines under some recorded spoken word Burroughs insanity...it's a document. I always wondered if Van Zandt did this after the fact or they actually got together...did Burroughs know about it? If so that's the only Burroughs 7"....until now.

I bring up Matt because we got into a long conversation driving back from Boston about the Beats and how much they influenced our college years. And I think it wasn't just us. It was the period of our lives when we should be reading that stuff...I mean I was amazed I never heard about any of these characters in high school. It was that combination of this underground scene and that reaction against the 50's let down...it was perfect.
I think I saw Naked Lunch on HBO, but I didn't get it. It just fit into our world view perfectly...we were moving away from home, writing on old typewriters with rolls of paper, taking roadtrips in shitty cars...being completely ridiculous. Documenting everything, who was going to be Neal Cassidy?
We met Allen ginsberg in Washington square park, he signed our copies of Howl. There was a Ginsberg doc at Film Forum...a show at the Whitney...it seemed like it was everywhere. Kerouac GAP kahki ad's.
Anyway, I wonder now if that was us discovering something on our own that then there happened to be a reintrest in this time period by coincidence or we were just into it thanks to these little signifiers. They just seemed cool, how could a couple of art school kids in the 90's connect with this? Does anyone still? Are there kids now as excited about that shit as I was? Completely blowing my tiny mind?

Anyway, these are outtakes from the LP that was released on Sub Rosa, or maybe just tracks off that full length, but I'm going to contact fusetron and pick up a copy and read On The Road again.

From Fusetron

*Artist: BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S.
Title: Three Allusive Tracks From Break Through In Grey Room
Format: 7"
Label: Sub Rosa
Country: Belgium
Price: $14.00
"Three extracts from one of Sub Rosas absolute classics, William S. Burroughs Break Through In Grey Room (SR 008CD/LP), featuring extraordinary, cut-up voices recorded during the mid-60s in hotel rooms in New York, Paris, and London. Available in a very limited edition of 300 copies only, with labels designed by famous French artist, Stéphane Blanquet." -Sub Rosa

plus Fusetron has got copies of that Black Dice tour single I reviewed a little while back.

Black Dice - Tour only single on Catsup Plate

Last night I caught Black Dice at Bowery Ballroom, after a pretty exhausting weekend of Northside fest shows, and I just happened to check the merch table because ....you never know there just might a single...even from an opening band, I'll always pick it up.
I asked the guy behind the table if this weirdo camouflage was Black Dice and sure enough it was. He pointed to a tiny stack of about 50 on a shelf next to him. "That's a tour only single and we only have this many left and then they are completely gone...forever. "
You already had me at 7"...
I was so excited this made it home ok and I put it on this morning to check it out.
The show was impressive, I've seen these guys in the past, but I don't remember it being this intense. So completely overwhelming, it takes everything over in volume and just continuous pummeling of sound and experience. There's nothing else but Black Dice making noise.
It's also weird to hear this live and I get self conscious I'm actually at a techno show, and everyone is on E or something. But just when that bass snare bass gets too repetitive they're on to the next idea.
They must have some kind of copyrighted processor because they just have this particular fucked up sinister sound. I think that's the other thing that saves them from ever crossing that terrible line. They want to rock you a little bit dance, but you're too scared to move...it's a nice combination. So I think 'What the fuck, this is good' and that's the end of it.

This single is completely unlabeled except for the Catsup plate CPR726 in the lower front corner.
Let me just say this is a different direction from the pure sound glitches on Beaches and Canyons. 'Chocolate Cherry': Right away they've sampled something and pitch shift it up and down with some vocals on top really slow. Then it works into an electric guitar chord, slowed down into another sound. There's warbly waves of high pitch ear splitting sound, but this doesn't really go anywhere. Maybe this is a unlicensed sample and someone could tell me that's the catch here...that would explain why it's so limited.
The B-Side 'Pop STD' is more manipulated samples, it sounds like the source could have been slightly reggae or dub, it's got that slightly delayed. An acoustic guitar is pitch shifted to create a new chord progression. I'm into pasting their sound on top of samples like this, but I've gotten this from Girl Talk, Panda Bear and a thousand others. I like when there's no frame of reference...they do that so well, it's weird to use a crutch like this. The last track 'Bob' does more of the same briefly...I guess they are evolving...and maybe like animal collective came to this otherworldly pop place after years of pure sound collage, Black Dice is finding something new in DJ mixing culture after going as far as humanly possible with pure sound.

From Catsup Plate records:

Ordering info
All copies currently with Black Dice on tour.

Black Dice's "Chocolate Cherry" seven inch comes hot on the heels of their album Repo (which is Catsup Plate's favorite Black Dice record) and finds the band pushing themselves further "out" and paradoxically making some of the poppiest sounds to come from their camp in some time.

If Repo was the sound of Black Dice making a funk record then "Chocolate Cherry" veers more towards soul, if you can believe that. The title track is all clipped ecstatic vocals and stuttering disco soul. "POP STD" pins a laconic guitar line and backmasked vocals onto a plodding drum line. And the record closes with the amazingly titled "Bob" which somehow merges insect like buzzing, an incessantly lazy rhythm and what this writer likes to think is a sitar drone (but probably isn't) into a piece of druggy brilliance.

Silkscreened on heavy chipboard in four colors by the fine folks at VG Kids.

Single edition of 500 copies only. All initial copies are to be sold on the band's Spring 2009 US tour. Any remaining copies will be made available upon the band's return.